In the early 1600s, Japan's nascent mass-publishing industry began printing editions of literary classics, such as courtly romances, medieval didactic tracts, and collections of poetry. By the end of the seventeenth century, an increasingly literate public was fueling a demand for parodies based on these works. My dissertation focuses upon one such text, Inu hyakunin isshu (The Mock One Hundred Poets, 1669), an illustrated parody of Hyakunin isshu (The One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, ca. 1230), the famous anthology of classical poetry compiled by the courtier Fujiwara no Teika (1162--1241). The Mock Poets was the first of many parodies of Teika's classic anthology that appeared during the Edo period (1600--1868), which had a profound impact on popular culture of the premodern era.; My main argument is that The Mock Poet's exhibits a form of parody that was firmly rooted in the literature of the past, especially the venerable form of comic verse known as kyoka ("madcap verse"), and a natural outgrowth of classical poetics. The Mock Poets not only resulted from increased literacy but also contributed to a public discourse on how to "read" classical poetry. Heretofore, mid-seventeenth-century, word-for-word parodies of canonical texts have often been viewed in isolation and summarily dismissed as derivative and unimportant. But when placed within the larger discursive context of seventeenth-century popular literature, The Mock Poets can be viewed as representing a sophisticated literary critique that engages in social satire using both words and images.; Part One of my dissertation examines the impact of social and intellectual trends on 17th-century parody, shows how it constituted part of a broader process of reconstructing and deconstructing canonical texts within the context of public performance, examines the discourse of satire and social commentary in kyoka and comic storybooks, and discusses the nature of parody within the context of late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century visual culture. Part Two presents my annotated translation of The Mock One Hundred Poets, describing how the parody reflects varying interpretations and visual representations of the original poems over time, and elucidates the complex web of visual and literary allusions that it employs.
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